Investigators Start Uncovering Graves

Aided by U.S. spy photographs that revealed the mass graves to the world, war crimes investigators cleared away soil Tuesday from at least 13 bodies believed to be Muslims from nearby Srebrenica.

The hands of nine corpses were wired behind their backs, indicating they were executed, said William D. Haglund, a forensic anthropologist who leads the team. Local Serbs have asserted they killed only armed Muslim soldiers in battle.

According to U.S. officials, up to 2,700 murdered Muslims lie in mass graves in the wooded valley around Nova Kasaba. They are among some 7,000 missing since Bosnian Serb troops overran Srebrenica in July 1995, and presumed dead.